NEWS OF THE WEEK NATIONAL
SECURITY
SCIENCE IN DEFENSE OF U.S. SECURITY NRC's chemical sciences board swings into action on homeland issues
R
ESPONDING TO A CALL-TO-
arms from the leadership of the National Academies spawned by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the National Research Council's Board on Chemical Sci ences & Technology (BCST) is proposing or initiating several projects that will help the U.S. respond to terrorism threats. BCST has an established track record of studies relating to such threats. In a Sept. 20 letter to President George W Bush, the presidents
of the academies suggested the "involvement ofthe U.S. scientific and technology community in assessing threats, developing countermeasures, and designing re sponses to terrorist incidents." And at its Oct. 5 meeting, BCST explored ways the chemical sci ences community could offer its expertise to meet the immediate and longer term needs of a gov ernment challenged by the expand ing dimensions of terrorism. At that meeting, BCST de cided to expand the scope of its
PREPAREDNESS
Drugmakers Form Emergency Task Force nder the auspices of the Pharmaceutical Research & Manu facturers of America (PhRMAl—the trade organiza tion for U.S. pharmaceutical and biotechnology compa nies—a number of drug com panies have formed a task force for emergency pre paredness to deal with < health consequences of ^| terrorist activities. s
Aventis has offered the U.S. government products, manu facturing capacity, and techni cal resources to protect against bioterrorism and has offered its support in ensur ing an adequate supply of smallpox vaccine. American Home Products is submitting
a plan to the government to develop and manufacture a new smallpox vaccine. Bristol-Myers Squibb has volunteered a team of 20 to 25 scientists specializing in anti bacterial research—under gov ernment direction, but fully funded by the company—to initi ate a multipronged attack on microbial weapons. Pharmacia will provide the Defense and Health & Alan F. Holmer, PhRMAs | Human Services president, says, "The task Σ Departments with confi force is working with the dential access to internal Bush Administration and scientific information, Congress to address the animal model systems, unique health challenges and chemical libraries for that the U.S. faces." The I potential antimicrobial task force is chaired by and antiviral agents. It Richard J. Markham, CEO of also will provide govern Aventis Pharma. ment scientists with access to Pharmacia labs Many of the task force and, if needed, will make members have already production facilities avail pledged help in various CIPRO Bayer's drug is only one able.—WILLIAM STORCK areas. Among the efforts, weapon for fighting bioterrorism
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study "Challenges for the Chem ical Sciences in the 21st Century" by adding a sixth workshop on national security and homeland defense. The workshop, sched uled for Jan. 14-16, 2 0 0 2 , in Irvine, Calif., will serve two pur poses, explains BCST Director DouglasJ. Raber. First, he says, it will "engage the chemical sciences R&D community in responding to the crisis." And it will "help fed eral agencies in their near-term decisions on how to invest longterm federal R&D dollars." As a follow-on to this work shop, the ACS Committee on Sci ence is planning a session on national security and homeland defense at the ACS spring na tional meeting in Orlando, Fla. The January workshop will happen, although additional funding for it is being sought. But two projects suggested at an Oct. 23 BCST planning meeting of experts from industry, universi ties, and federal agencies still need NRC approval and funding. O n e study would develop standard operating procedures for first responders to chemical, biological, or explosive materials emergencies —sort of a guide book on how to respond under crisis conditions. A second study would assess the current status and future needs for rapidreporting chemical, biological, and explosive detection systems. Evaluating marketplace-ready instrumentation could be done quickly But more in-depth analy ses could "be carried out to estab lish longer term R&D needs for detection and to develop the basis for a road map for meeting them," Raber says. Finally, at the request of the leadership of the National Acad emies, BCST will hold an emer gency closed-door session in December to discuss other ways in which the academies can frame projects that would help the U.S. respond to new threats. From these discussions, Raber says, "BCST will plan appropriate fol low-on activities. "-LOI S EMBER HTTP://PUBS.ACS.ORG/CEN
